Daphne Kis | Markle
Daphne Kis | Markle

Daphne Kis

Principal, DKE
Managing Director, Golden Seeds
Expert Advisor, Rework America

Daphne Kis is a change agent, strategist and operator. As Principal of DKE, she is a business strategy consultant to young companies and consigliore to CEOs of growing enterprises. Her areas of expertise include content media, education technology, and business to business and direct to consumer marketplaces and platforms. A frequent advisor to the Markle Foundation, Kis was the current Initiative’s original project director.

With a strong commitment to entrepreneurship, Kis is a managing director at Golden Seeds, an angel network that invests in women-led companies, and a lead mentor to the Entrepreneurs’ Roundtable Accelerator, the German Accelerator New York, and Springboard Enterprises, where she further serves on the Technology and Media Council. She has taught the principles of entrepreneurship and angel investor both in the U.S. and abroad.

Kis serves on the board of directors of Applywise, an online management tool for the college application process, FilmBuff, an online platform for independent filmmakers, and Hitfix, a consumer site for entertainment news.

On the non-profit front, she is on the advisory board of Center4, which helps New York area health and human services organizations secure innovative technologies from emerging companies. Kis is a national board director, and chair of the advocacy committee, for Young Audiences Arts for Learning, a national affiliate network that serves more than five million children in nearly 7,000 schools and community centers around the country.

Previously, Kis spent nearly two decades as co-owner, President and CEO of EDventure Holdings. She published Release 1.0, a monthly analysis of the PC/Internet business and produced the yearly PC Forum, the industry’s leading executive tech conference. She led the company’s acquisition by CNET Networks, where as VP of Business to Business Programs, she continued to develop new digital products.

Kis started her career as an art director for The Nation magazine. She graduated from Hampshire College when it was a startup with a degree in social history, and holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern School of Business.